KALEO formed in Mosfellsbaer in 2012, a quiet town about 12 miles (20 km) from Reykjavik known for its striking lava landscapes and horse riding tours. Within a few years of forming, the childhood friends had gone from selling out shows at one of Iceland's top music festivals to topping US Billboard charts and placing their music in some of the biggest television shows on the planet.
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What makes Kaleo's story compelling isn't just the speed of their rise. It's the way they carried Iceland with them through all of it.
Their most iconic music videos filmed in Iceland were shot on moving icebergs and inside ancient volcanoes. Their sound blends Delta blues and Icelandic folk in a way that sounds like nowhere else on earth. And after years of touring the world, they keep coming back to perform on home soil.
This is the full story of Kaleo: where they came from, how they broke through, and how to see them live in Iceland.
Photo from Wikimedia, Creative Commons, by Markus Felix | PushingPixels. No edits made.
Key Facts About KALEO
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KALEO is an Icelandic blues-rock band formed in Mosfellsbaer in 2012, a small town about 12 miles (20 km) from Reykjavik.
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The band has five members: Jökull Júlíusson (vocals/guitar), Davíð Antonsson (drums), Daníel Kristjánsson (bass), Rubin Pollock (guitar), and Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson (harmonica).
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The name KALEO comes from the Hawaiian word for "the voice." JJ's given name Jökull means glacier in Icelandic.
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KALEO has released four studio albums: Kaleo (2013), A/B (2016), Surface Sounds (2021), and Mixed Emotions (2025). A/B has sold over one million copies worldwide.
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"Way Down We Go" reached number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and has appeared in over a dozen television shows.
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KALEO received a Grammy nomination in 2017 for Best Rock Performance for "No Good," a song written in a handful of days after a call from Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger.
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Their music videos have been filmed inside a volcano, on a floating iceberg, and at one of Iceland's most remote lighthouses.
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KALEO's music has also appeared in FIFA 16, FIFA 23, Madden NFL 17, NHL 18, Far Cry 5, and MLB The Show 20. MMA fighter Gunnar Nelson uses "Way Down We Go" as his ring walk song.
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KALEO headlines BERGMÁL, a music festival held on the summer solstice at Thingvellir National Park.
The Rise of Rock in Iceland
Rock music arrived in Iceland through an unlikely gateway. When the US military established Naval Air Station on the Reykjanes Peninsula after World War II, the residents of nearby Keflavik were among the first Icelanders to hear American rock and roll broadcast from the base's radio station.
What began as a foreign noise drifting across the lava fields quickly took root, and within a generation, Icelandic teenagers were forming their own bands.
The 1970s and 1980s saw a full-blown rock scene emerge, documented in the 1982 Icelandic film Rokk í Reykjavík, directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. The documentary captured a raw, energetic punk and rock culture that had grown entirely on Icelandic soil, producing bands like Hljómar, Trúbrot, and The Sugarcubes.
Visitors with an interest in this history can explore it at the Icelandic Museum of Rock 'n' Roll in Keflavik, which the town has embraced as its own cultural identity.
By the time Iceland entered the 21st century, the country had become better known internationally for the experimental sounds of Björk and the ethereal post-rock of Sigur Rós. Traditional rock had taken a back seat. Then came KALEO.
KALEO's Origins: From Mosfellsbaer to Airwaves
KALEO's story begins at a primary school in Mosfellsbaer, where Jökull Júlíusson (JJ), Davíð Antonsson, and Daníel Kristjánsson became best friends.
The three began playing music together in their teens under the name Timburmenn, an Icelandic slang term for men nursing a hangover, performing covers at any local gig they could get. They were, by their own admission, happy to play anywhere that would have them.
In 2012, German-born guitarist Rubin Pollock joined the group and the band took on a new identity. They renamed themselves KALEO, a Hawaiian word meaning "the voice," and shifted their focus from covers to original material.
The fifth member, harmonicist Þorleifur Gaukur Davíðsson, would later join the lineup and has been part of the band's studio recordings and live performances ever since.
Their first major public appearance came at Iceland Airwaves in 2012, playing an off-venue show in the festival's early stages that quickly built them a loyal following in Iceland's compact but passionate music scene.
The momentum continued into 2013 when their live radio performance of the traditional Icelandic folk song "Vor í Vaglaskógi" was filmed and posted to YouTube, where it went viral.
The song, originally made famous by beloved Icelandic singer Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson, struck a deep chord with Icelandic audiences and was later featured in the first episode of the acclaimed Icelandic crime series Trapped.
By the end of 2013, KALEO had signed with Sena, Iceland's largest record label, and recorded their self-titled debut album in just six weeks. It went gold in Iceland, produced five number-one singles, and sent the band on their first European tour.
The following year, a Culture Night performance in Reykjavik drew 100,000 people live and reached an estimated 90% of Iceland's population through broadcast. For a band that had only existed two years, it was a remarkable signal of what was coming.
Breaking Through: The A/B Era
In 2014, after their debut album had gone gold in Iceland and earned them a loyal European following, the band signed with Atlantic Records and relocated from Mosfellsbaer to Austin, Texas. The move gave them access to the studios, collaborators, and live circuit they needed to break through internationally.
A/B was recorded primarily in Nashville alongside producer Jacquire King, known for his work with Kings of Leon and James Bay, and released on June 10, 2016. The album blended Delta blues, Icelandic folk, and straight-ahead rock into a sound that stood out on American radio. It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard 200 and went on to sell over one million copies worldwide.
Three singles drove its success. "All the Pretty Girls" peaked at number nine on the Billboard Adult Alternative Songs chart.
"Way Down We Go" reached number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and was certified double platinum in the United States. It appeared in a string of television shows including Grey's Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries, Suits, and the trailer for the 2017 film Logan.
"No Good," written in a handful of days mid-tour after a call from Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger for the HBO series Vinyl, earned KALEO a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance in 2017.
KALEO sold out their first headline tour in the United States and went on to headline some of the world's biggest festivals, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo.
In 2017, KALEO opened for the Rolling Stones. By the time the A/B tour wrapped in late 2018, the band had spent three years on the road and cemented their place as one of the most compelling live rock acts in the world.
Life After A/B: Surface Sounds and Mixed Emotions
After three years of near-constant touring, KALEO returned to the studio with a clear sense of where they wanted to go next. Their third album, Surface Sounds, was announced in early 2020 alongside the singles "I Want More" and "Break My Baby," but the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to delay its release twice.
It finally arrived in April 2021, a bigger and more rock-driven record than A/B, and became the first KALEO album to top the Icelandic pop chart.
The band marked its release with a remarkable gesture: a live performance of "Break My Baby" recorded at Thridrangar Lighthouse, one of the most remote and inaccessible structures in Iceland, on the 78th anniversary of the lighthouse's construction.
The Fight or Flight World Tour that followed was one of the most ambitious of the band's career. In 2022 alone, KALEO performed 97 times across 92 cities in 22 countries, selling over a quarter of a million tickets globally.
The 2024 Payback Tour continued that momentum, with sold-out shows at iconic venues including Red Rocks in Colorado and Wembley Arena in London.
Their fourth studio album, Mixed Emotions, was released on May 9, 2025, through Atlantic Records.
Produced by Grammy Award winner Eddie Spear, known for his work with Zach Bryan and Sierra Ferrell, and co-produced by JJ and Grammy Award winner Shawn Everett, the album pushed the band's sound into new territory while staying rooted in the blues-rock foundation they built in Mosfellsbaer.
The tracklist includes a version of the traditional Icelandic lullaby "Sofðu Unga Ástin Mín," a nod to the band's origins that sits comfortably alongside the album's harder rock material.
KALEO in Their Own Backyard: The Music Videos
One of the most distinctive things about KALEO is that their biggest international success has always been accompanied by a deliberate return to Iceland.
While other bands shoot their videos on generic soundstages, KALEO has consistently used Iceland's most extreme landscapes as their backdrop, producing a series of live performance videos that are as much travel films as music videos.
The most iconic is their live take of "Way Down We Go," filmed inside Thrihnukagigur, the only volcano in the world where visitors can descend into the magma chamber.
The band performed the song deep inside the dormant volcano, a location about 45 minutes from Reykjavik that any visitor to Iceland can also experience on a guided Thrihnukagigur Volcano tour.
For "Save Yourself," released in 2016, KALEO transported their full setup onto a floating iceberg on Fjallsarlon Glacier Lagoon, deep in Vatnajokull National Park in the shadow of Iceland's largest glacier. The lagoon's crew oversaw safety as the band was transported by boat and performed live on the ice, with the white slopes of the park surrounding them on all sides.
Their 2021 video for "Break My Baby" took the concept even further. The band performed at Thridrangar, an isolated lighthouse perched near the Westman Islands. Perched on a rocky outcrop about 130 feet (40 m) above the North Atlantic Ocean, it can only be reached by helicopter.
For "Skinny," released the same year, JJ Julius Son performed an acoustic version of the song with the erupting Fagradalsfjall Volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula as his backdrop. The peninsula has seen several eruptions since 2021 and is one of the few places on earth where visitors can get close to active volcanic activity on guided volcano tours.
Taken together, these videos tell their own story: a band that became famous in America but never stopped being Icelandic.
Seeing KALEO Live in Iceland
For fans who want to experience KALEO on home soil, Iceland offers two very different but equally compelling contexts: an intimate summer festival at one of the country's most historically significant sites, and the long-running autumn showcase where the band first made their name.
BERGMÁL at Thingvellir National Park
KALEO headlines BERGMÁL, a music festival held on the summer solstice at Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 40 minutes from Reykjavik. The name is the Icelandic word for echo, a fitting choice for a festival where music resonates across lava fields, cliffs, and open skies.
It's expected to sell out, so it's a good idea to get your tickets for Bergmál as soon as possible.
Thingvellir sits on the boundary of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and is the site where Iceland's parliament, the Althingi, was founded in 930 AD, making it one of the oldest parliamentary sites in the world.
The festival takes place on June 20, 2026, with a lineup of popular Icelandic artists alongside KALEO, including Emilíana Torrini, Mugison, Hjálmar, Júníus Meyvant, and Árný Margrét. The event is family-friendly, with children welcome when accompanied by an adult.
The drive from Reykjavik to Thingvellir follows Route 36, making a car rental one of the easiest ways to reach the venue. Festivalgoers looking to extend the trip can book a night at one of the best hotels along the Golden Circle and explore the surrounding area the following day.
Iceland Airwaves
Iceland Airwaves is Iceland's longest-running and most internationally recognized music festival, held each November in Reykjavik. It was at Airwaves in 2012 that KALEO first played in front of a public audience, and the festival has remained the primary stage where Iceland's most exciting new acts break through to international attention.
Past performers include Björk, Sigur Rós, Of Monsters and Men, and Florence and the Machine. For music fans visiting Iceland in fall, Airwaves is the natural companion to a trip built around the country's musical heritage, with shows spread across live music venues throughout central Reykjavik over several days.
The Band That Never Really Left Iceland
KALEO's story is, at its core, a story about a small place producing something far larger than itself. Four childhood friends from a quiet town outside Reykjavik learned their instruments playing covers in local bars, broke through at an Icelandic music festival, and went on to sell out Red Rocks, Wembley Arena, and some of the biggest festival stages in the world.
Through all of it, they kept coming back to Iceland, filming music videos on icebergs and inside volcanoes, and performing on home soil for the audiences that first believed in them.
For visitors to Iceland, the places that shaped KALEO are never far away. Mosfellsbaer, where the band grew up and first learned to play, is a 20-minute drive from Reykjavik and the gateway to some of the region's most striking landscapes, including the Hvammsvik Hot Springs in Hvalfjordur Fjord.
Thingvellir National Park, where they are headlining The Bergmál Music Festival under the midnight sun, sits at the heart of the Golden Circle. The glacier lagoon where they performed on a floating iceberg is one of the hidden gems of the South Coast, where visitors can join a boat tour among the icebergs.
For a band whose music is so tied to a specific place, Iceland has a way of making that connection feel very real.
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Have you seen KALEO perform live, in Iceland or anywhere else in the world? We'd love to hear about your experience in the comments below.
Michael Chapman is a British travel writer living in Reykjavík. A former scuba and lava cave guide, he draws on firsthand experience to write about Iceland’s nature and culture. He’s also the author of Hidden Iceland (2020).
